Alan Dawson was a quickish swing bowler and inventive lower-order batsman who struggled to discard the label of one-day specialist before establishing himself firmly for Western Province in the mid-1990s alongside Craig Matthews and Eric Simons, who is now South Africa's coach. First picked for South Africa in 1998, Dawson toured the Asian subcontinent seven times in the six years. He played a crucial role in WP's SuperSport Series title in 1998-99, when he crafted 143 in the final batting at nine, and was the competition's leading wicket-taker in 2002-3. A year later, after his province won the domestic title again, Dawson was named one of South Africa's five cricketers of the year. Since retiring he has concentrated on his second career as a landscape gardener.
Debashish Biswas October 2005